Forty percent of Pine Bluff residents do not feel safe living in the city, more than 20% said they didn't feel safe in their homes at night, and 7 out of 10 said the city was not a clean and attractive community, according to a survey
Following Monday night's Pine Bluff City Council meeting, a citizen-led organization released the results of a six-week public safety survey conducted in January.
The United Citizens for Pine Bluff launched the community survey effort following a shooting that injured seven people at a gas station in Pine Bluff last August. Following that incident, the city suffered three homicides in one day in early September, and a month later, a police officer was shot and killed.
"You get fed up," said Kymara Seals, community activist and group spokesperson. "We know this problem is not municipal government alone; it's not the courts and it's not law enforcement."
Seals said after the shooting she went to Facebook to voice her concerns and what Pine Bluff citizens could do.
"We had months of virtual community meetings via Facebook," said Seals. "We had really good engagement and came up with this group, United Citizens of Pine Bluff."
Led by Seals, Kerry Williams, State Rep. Vivian Flowers and Michael McCray, the organization grew to over 50 volunteers who were seeking solutions to help solve the violence and crime in Pine Bluff.
A survey was created for citizens to complete in order to gauge awareness and perceptions of crime, individual experiences with crime, and expectations and ideas about how to address the challenges moving forward.
An 18-page executive summary summarized the data collected. A total of 797 surveys were completed, 712 online and 85 were filled out on paper.
"We had over 1,000 open response comments," said Williams, who analyzed all the data received. "It was amazing some of the things that were said."
The majority -- 68.1% -- of the respondents were female; African American respondents made up 71.1% of the total; and 15.3% were white. The majority of the ages of participants were 60 and over with 34.3%; followed by 50-59 with 23.1%; and 40-49 at 18.8%.
"One interesting point was that community members had lived in Pine Bluff for over 25 years," said Williams. "You had a good number of people that are invested here, they own property here and they've been here for a number of years."
The majority of the citizens completing the survey who were residents of Pine Bluff for more than 25 years made up 62.6%; and 72.8% of the survey participants were homeowners.
The survey focused on safety, the Pine Bluff Police Department and the city of Pine Bluff.
Almost 55% or respondents said they felt safe in Pine Bluff; while 40.2% did not feel safe; and 5% felt very safe within the community. Some 20.5% of respondents said they did not feel safe at night in their homes.
Three-quarters of respondents -- 75.4% -- said they did not feel safe walking at night in the community, while 61.2% said they only felt safe in the daytime in their residence.
The survey respondents felt the greatest issues in Pine Bluff were: gun violence, 62.6%; gang activity, 44.5%; and homicide, 47.8%.
More than 71% of the respondents indicated they had changed or limited their activities due to crime within the city.
Regarding the Pine Bluff Police Department, 63.9% felt the police were responsive to their needs; 71.6% noted they had not been a victim of a crime in the past three years; 23.7% had been victimized and reported it to the police; while 4.7% did not notify the police of a crime.
When asked if they felt that Pine Bluff police are honest and ethical when dealing with citizens 43.9% were neutral; 41% agreed; and 15.1% disagreed. When asked if they trusted the police, 40.7% were neutral; 40.4% agreed; and 18.9% disagreed.
Pine Bluff had a total of 42.4% of respondents who said they felt Pine Bluff was a great place to raise a family; 45.6% disagreed with the statement that Pine Bluff offers a good quality of life; and 70% disagreed with the statement that Pine Bluff was a clean and attractive community.
When it came to great leadership, 39.8% disagreed that Pine Bluff leadership was a good reflection of the community; 31.6% were neutral; and 28.6% agreed. More than a third -- 34.3% -- agreed the community is improving in providing job opportunities for residents; while 23.2% disagreed.
Priorities for moving forward were based on open-response survey questions when it comes to safety, including implementing community policing, bike patrols and neighborhood precincts; enforcing laws and youth curfew; and increasing patrol and lighting in crime hot spot areas.
To increase community involvement, youth intervention was a top priority, with ideas given to provide an increase in recreational activities for the young.
Reducing school violence was also a priority. Respondents said there should be more social-emotional learning; trust-building; relationship-building; community businesses adopting schools; restorative practices; anonymous tip line; trade school programs; and more security cameras at school buildings.
To keep the city of Pine Bluff clean, suggestions were to enforce ordinances and penalties. Other issues that came up were slumlords, uninhabitable properties and drug houses.
Economic development was also a topic with a suggestion to increase jobs and workforce programs for the youth. Other implementations included career training and tuition assistance.
For the Pine Bluff Police Department, the respondents wanted increased safety by reducing crime and disorder by carefully examining the character of problems in neighborhoods and applying the appropriate solving remedies.
Respondents suggested an increased police force with every officer living within the city limits, pay increase and incentives, police training, and more focus on enforcing laws.
"This is just phase one," said Seals after the survey results were presented. "We're coming with recommendations in Phase 2."
Organizers plan to sit down with the city of Pine Bluff Safety Committee next week for a more in-depth conversation.
They also plan to speak with small businesses, schools, educational officials, social services, mental health counselors, youth groups, senior citizens, and others to gather recommendations that will help reduce gun violence and crime and improve public safety and quality of life in Pine Bluff.
"We're going to continue these meetings. This is not something that we finish tonight," said Seals. "We want to have these conversations and really move to the next level."
The Public Safety Committee will meet with the United Citizens of Pine Bluff, Tuesday, May 25th at 1:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers.
